No depression, major recession, from US finance crisis: Gates

WASHINGTON: The richest man in America, Bill Gates, said in a television interview that the US financial crisis does not spell the end of capitalism and will not lead to a depression.

"It's a very interesting crisis," Microsoft founder said in an interview which was broadcast on Sunday, discussing the US Congress's $700 billion bailout bill for Wall Street which was passed on Friday to stem economic jitters spreading around the world.

The slump triggered by the collapse of the subprime housing market requires "some type of correction," Gates added, "but fundamentally ... companies' willingness to invest, right now we haven't seen a huge disruption in that." "It looks like the economy may go down somewhat, but nothing like a big recession or a depression," he added.

On some experts' misgivings about the US bailout plan, Gates said: "it doesn't look like fixing these problems is going to derail the economy in some dramatic way." Gates, who last month topped Forbes magazine's list of the richest men in the United States with an estimated $57 billion fortune, said the future of the US and the global economies lies in the resilience and innovative spirit of businessmen and scientists around the world.

"The amount of innovation taking place, the amount of investment is actually greater today than ever," Gates said.

"Because you not only have more American companies with more scientists and engineers and innovators, but now you have ... people from all over, including lots of people in India and China, now contributing to new drug design, new software design, new energy generation design."